Greetings. My name is Justin Wood. I'm hanging out on the toxin-ectomy forum this week, discussing things and giving away some of my favorite "natural solutions to life's icky problems."

Like everyone, I wear many hats: I'm a husband, father of six children, educator, permaculturalist, traveler, and small business owner.

In the course of life, my family and I have run into lots of little issues that can make life unpleasant:
* the potty-training toddler who gets pinworms and shares them with the whole family * the chickenmites who are biting not only our hens, but our children as well
* the terrible urine smell on the couch where one of our kids slept (and peed) when they were sick * the ants who refuse to give up their domain on the kitchen counter in the summer
* the fleas who promptly took residence in our beds after the family cat brought them in

The hardest part of many of problems is solving them without creating bigger problems with the toxic "solutions" offered by the mainstream.

Over the last decade, our family has discovered many natural solutions to life's problems. Among our favorites are diatomaceous earth and Calcium Bentonite. We have used them individually, and have discovered they have an amazing synergy when used together - making the combination more effective than using either one by itself.

After researching, we found one mine where there is a naturally occurring blend of Diatomaceous Earth and Calcium Bentonite (approximately 2:1 ratio). In December we launched our own brand of Diatomaceous Earth with Calcium Bentonite. We found it easiest to use the powder with some type of applicator, so we packaged ours in an easy to use squeeze applicator bottle. The product is Abundant Living's Natural Diatomaceous Earth Powder with Calcium Bentonite.

You can learn more about our product and its many uses on our website, MyAbundantLiving.com

For fellow Permies members, we want to share a 25% off coupon code. (We know money can be tight when you are on this homesteading type journey!) This week (Jan. 26- Feb.1) just enter "4PERMIES" when you check out.

Blessings as you continue on your own Permies journey. I look forward to interacting with many of you on the forum this week.

Carol Peek

Posts: 6

posted 2 years ago

First let me say thank you for the discount coupon! Second, this is in such great timing because me sister and I have been discussing DE the past several months....mostly a good, safe food grade product and of course at a fair price. Locally it is very difficult to find other than in Walmart (pesticide isle) or at a pet store (cut off your right arm price). Anyway, thanks again and now I have some reading to do.

Justin Wood

Posts: 95

Location: KY

9

posted 2 years ago

Carol, glad you are on the DE journey. Pass around the coupons to anyone you want. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us here or from our site: MyAbundantLiving.com

Corban Wells

Posts: 4

Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA

posted 2 years ago

I'm prolly an idiot, but I can't get the coupon code to work on Amazon. I have an order of three bottles waiting as soon as coupon code works, or as soon as someone edjumacates me on how to type.

thomas rubino

Posts: 826

Location: latitude 47 N.W. montana zone 6A

41

posted 2 years ago

Carol peek: DE can be hard to find, but it is available at most farm & ranch stores ... its just that the majority of employees do not know what it is! I have been feeding my pigs 2% food grade DE for years. Would not raise hogs without it ! Healthy happy pigs and very little (compared to normal) piggy smell ! I buy my FG,DE in 50# sacks locally at the Big R store runs about 50 bucks a sack. Here is the thing ... only One employee knows they have this ! Every time they insist that its not there ... lol We use this DE for a myriad of things in and around the house & farm. My wife and I are both approaching 60 (oh no) and I attribute our good health to wild game , organic pasture pork ,chickens , our own gardens ,clean water and of course DE . I have not had the chance to try Justins DE with bentonite yet but I hope to do so in the very near future.

Not all who wander are lost... J.R.R. Tolkien

Justin Wood

Posts: 95

Location: KY

9

posted 2 years ago

Corban Wells wrote:I'm prolly an idiot, but I can't get the coupon code to work on Amazon. I have an order of three bottles waiting as soon as coupon code works, or as soon as someone edjumacates me on how to type.

Corban,

Sorry about that, the code was not working earlier. I went in and fixed it. Please let me know if you have any further problems. Thanks for letting me know! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Blessings.

Justin Wood

Posts: 95

Location: KY

9

posted 2 years ago

thomas rubino wrote:Carol peek: DE can be hard to find, but it is available at most farm & ranch stores ... its just that the majority of employees do not know what it is! I have been feeding my pigs 2% food grade DE for years. Would not raise hogs without it ! Healthy happy pigs and very little (compared to normal) piggy smell ! I buy my FG,DE in 50# sacks locally at the Big R store runs about 50 bucks a sack. Here is the thing ... only One employee knows they have this ! Every time they insist that its not there ... lol We use this DE for a myriad of things in and around the house & farm. My wife and I are both approaching 60 (oh no) and I attribute our good health to wild game , organic pasture pork ,chickens , our own gardens ,clean water and of course DE . I have not had the chance to try Justins DE with bentonite yet but I hope to do so in the very near future.

Thomas,

Completely agree. We have had very similar experiences in the past with feed stores. It is usually cataloged under feed additives.

Blessings.

Corban Wells

Posts: 4

Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA

posted 2 years ago

I can happily report the discount code is working and I have 3 bottles of your Bentonite/DE coming to my front doorstep. I'm super excited . Never tried eating dirt on purpose before, at least not in the past 36 years. . I'll be happy to share any 'experiences' I notice after I begin using your product.

Cheers

Cris Fellows

Posts: 40

1

posted 2 years ago

Justin, I am really excited to learn about all the other things DE can do. Thus far, I have only used it with limited success for the ant hoards of 2014. I will be running a trial of my own, since I still have some left, alongside DE with CB. I have to do some reading up about internal use. I knew it was in foods to help deter pests...did not realize it was also beneficial. Do you have any direct anecdotes on how it has improved the health of your family? Thanks a bunch for the info and the coupon, Cris

Justin Wood

Posts: 95

Location: KY

9

posted 2 years ago

Corban Wells wrote:I can happily report the discount code is working and I have 3 bottles of your Bentonite/DE coming to my front doorstep. I'm super excited . Never tried eating dirt on purpose before, at least not in the past 36 years. . I'll be happy to share any 'experiences' I notice after I begin using your product.

Cheers

Awesome! I would love to hear any experiences.

Again, we suggest that you try several different types of food grade DE. We use our brand in our house and in us - zone 0. We have a couple different DE brands we are trying on our animals and on our blueberries - zone 1, 2.

Blessings.

Justin Wood

Posts: 95

Location: KY

9

posted 2 years ago

Cris Fellows wrote:Justin, I am really excited to learn about all the other things DE can do. Thus far, I have only used it with limited success for the ant hoards of 2014. I will be running a trial of my own, since I still have some left, alongside DE with CB. I have to do some reading up about internal use. I knew it was in foods to help deter pests...did not realize it was also beneficial. Do you have any direct anecdotes on how it has improved the health of your family? Thanks a bunch for the info and the coupon, Cris

Cris,

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with all the internal uses. My beautiful wife has written some of our experiences on our blog about insect bites, fleas, and more: http://myabundantliving.com/blog/ She also a more general uses here:http://myabundantliving.com/diatomaceous-earth/

Enjoy the journey!

Blessings.

Richard Huffmon

Posts: 12

posted 2 years ago

My friend recommends Sevin powder for insect control. I prefer to avoid using poisons in my food garden, or anywhere else for that matter. Will Diatomaceous Earth provide the same level of protection from insects. Won't it kill the predators too?

Justin Wood

Posts: 95

Location: KY

9

posted 2 years ago

Richard Huffmon wrote:My friend recommends Sevin powder for insect control. I prefer to avoid using poisons in my food garden, or anywhere else for that matter. Will Diatomaceous Earth provide the same level of protection from insects. Won't it kill the predators too?

Richard,

Thanks for the question. It is a good question because in certain parts of the country, this is still the common practice. Where I grew up in Kentucky, everyone had huge gardens and everyone pour all kinds of stuff on their beautiful gardens. Sevin was like candy for the garden.

I would encourage you to do some research on Sevin and what it does to insects. Maybe include "bhopal disaster and sevin" in a google search.

For me personally, I believe that use of anything in a garden to kill insects is a band-aid. Good polyculture is the best solution. With that said, if the japanese beetles are really hitting my blueberries to the point I am going to lose my harvest, then I spray neem oil and DE to fight them. I cannot afford to lose my investment so I will use organic sprays, but my ultimate goal is to create a place that does not need that. I have only been on this property for 1.5 years and I just don't have my design implemented yet.

The problem is that we as humans usually push the land to do things it either cannot do or is not really meant to do. For example, monoculture does not really exist in nature, but we plan rows of things and wonder why the bugs come and eat it.